There are more than 100 apps for
social networking. One of the newest “Highlight” which was launched on January
24, of this year, works by looking through your Facebook account to find who
you know and what you like. Then it uses your iPhone’s GPS to let you know when
someone you know is in your general vicinity, or when someone with the same
interests as you is nearby. It continuously monitors where you are and shares
it both inside and outside your existing circle of friends.Its internal
message feature can help you meet up with friends who might be in the coffee
shop next door, or introduce yourself to potential business contacts, buddies,
or romantic interests. “The app’s home screen shows a reverse
chronological list of all the people you’ve crossed paths with. Clicking
through to someone reveals basic information they’ve added, mutual friends and
interests, Highlight status updates, and a log of every time you’ve been nearby
them.”
I can think of ways it could be useful, but I can also think
of ways that users may abuse this app. I personally wouldn’t get it.
YouTube has
shaped the internet as well as our lives over the past seven years becoming the
most rapidly growing force in human history. For every minute that passes in
real time, 60 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube and that amounts to 10
years of video everyday and the upload pace is accelerating. Last year the rate
was only 48 hours a minute.
YouTube is
the second biggest search engine on the internet. “It
has to keep a lot of servers humming to store all the video, because YouTube
never forgets, and it needs big, fat expensive pipes to keep those videos
streaming 24/7, 365.”
YouTube
cannot watch videos, but it can watch what we do. What it found was that most
people going onto YouTube had no idea what they were looking for, so YouTube started
rebuilding it to help users focus their intent. In order to do that, they pursued
a channel concept where videos could be grouped. They started to produce their
own content and hired Robert Kyncl from Netflix to be in charge of all content.
So far
Kyncl has signed Madonna, Disney, KhanAcademy to mention just a few…and on
its most popular channel, YouTube has 5.3 million subscribers, which is more
than USA’s
top cable TV network.
YouTube
also launched small site called onehourpersecond.com,
which shows a collection of various events happening in YouTube time.
Mike Matas is a digital design prodigy. He feels that if you
want to do something on a computer, you should be able to reach out and just do
it. http://www.coolhunting.com/design/mike-matas.php
Near the end of high school he and a friend Wil Shipley,
created Delicious
Monster a media cataloging application which enables users to visually
categorize their multimedia library by placing photo-realistic icons of the
products on a simulated bookshelf. If you go to that website you can still
download that app for free.
At 19, Matas captured the attention of Apple and was invited
to join the company's Human Interface team where he started working on an
innovative, covert project—the iPhone. "Working on the original iPhone was
a lot of fun because it was a completely new product where nothing was off
limits," states Matas.
After four years with Apple, Matas left in 2009 with friend
and Apple colleague Kimon Tsinteris and together they launched Push Pop Press, a
publishing company offering dynamic digital solutions without the fuss of labour
intensive and pricey programming. They were approached by publishing firm Melcher
Media, and developed the first full-length interactive book for iPad, "Our Choice,"
the sequel to Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth."
Matas demoed the digitized book at the recent TED conference, highlighting
its specialized pinch-and-place navigation, and interactive teaching potential
such as powering an animated windmill on the screen with his breath. "You
can navigate the entire book this way, without any extra computer interface to
stumble over and distraction from the content. The technology disappears and
you can get lost in the content,"
Why are we so attached to technology, when it makes us all
so vulnerable? What does the government already know about us? “From tracking your
movement with automated licence plate readers to attaching a name to your face
in a crowd using biometric recognition of driver's licence photos; from
bureaucrats and politicians reading your health records to police analyzing
your income and spending habits, if push came to shove, the information on you
in the government's reach is immense.”http://www.nationalpost.com/They+file/6173489/story.html
If you want some more specific examples, just watch Avi Rubin
a computer science professor and director
of Health and Medical Security Lab at JohnsHopkinsUniversity.
If all our devices can be hacked, why do we buy so many of
them? Why do we ignore all the evidence? “…technology companies have slowly come to believe that they are also
entitled to gather that data and, perhaps, use it. An investigation by the U.S.
Congress revealed recently that in many cases personal data collected by application
developers is stored and used without permission. Some may use it to expand
their own network of customers; others may sell it to advertisers. Foursquare,
Twitter, Yelp, Hipster and Instagram are among the app makers that have
collected data from iPhones. Some don't even bother to tell customers that they
are storing it.” “ Privacy is an ancient and once cherished right that has been
transformed from a fact of life to a dying memory. And, as Facebook
demonstrates several million times a day, a large part of humanity likes it the
new way.”http://www.nationalpost.com/life/There+privacy+online+missed/6173511/story.html
A small device called a BodyWave can detect levels of
neurotransmissions and can determine when you are primed to make important decisions.
The application of this advancement is enormous. Peter Freer a former high
school teacher developed existing EEG technology, which then came to NASA,
NASCAR and at the Ontario Power Generation’s attention to help employees focus.
It can be worn on your arm or anywhere else where your body is sensitive to
changes. “The sensors register the electrical charges that occur in your brain
when you concentrate hard. The act of concentration necessitates the firing of
neurons in careful synchrony. That synchrony produces a unique electrical
signature that can be measured.” “The BodyWave is
discomforting to many users because it can detect changes in your thoughts
before you can.” What will technology be able to do with this
application in the future?
Aakash is an
Android based tablet computer developed and produced by a British company
called DataWind. It has a 7 inch touch screen, 2GB RAM, and runs under
the Android 2.3 operating system. It has USB ports and HD quality video. A
trial run of 100,000 was made in India, with a $35 price-tag for
students and $60 for the general public.
DataWind’s
Research and Development is based in Montreal,
and it has offices here in the Toronto
area. Their revenue has gone from $10 million to half a billion in a year. They
are presently working on a 4G enabled tablet. So, why does a tablet cost so
much here? Why are we not benefiting from that technology?Tablets are obviously produced in countries
other than Canada,
and they can clearly be produced for a lot less than they are sold for here.
P.S. The new iPad
was announced for release today for about $600.
Everywhere one
goes, phone companies are vying for our business. Android powered smartphones
are gaining, RIM technology is declining.
Phone wars
can also now be taken literally. “The idea is
that the GhostRider’s crypto can allow secure phone calls and text messages;
transmitted over the Army’s data net works, anywhere out in a war zone. A
tap-and-hold of the smart phone’s touchscreen turns the phone display red, to
signal that the security features are engaged. Send another GhostRider user a
secure text, and she’ll be asked to enter a passcode before her phone can
receive and decipher it. Its security standards have been certified by the crypto
experts at the National Security Agency, ITT tells any visitor to its AUSA
pavilion…” http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/10/begun-these-army-phone-wars-have/
But as valuable and versatile as cellphones are; are there different safety
risks associated with cell phones? There is a lot of evidence out there that
cell phones are dangerous.
After considering
the plight of Post Service, I came across the following article. It sites
economists from the London School of Economics who feel,“since the mid-1990s, moderately educated workers
— high-school graduates and those with two years of college — have seen their
pay and job chances falling compared with both the very educated (those with
four or more years of college) and the least educated (high-school dropouts).”-
“A lot of research suggests technology is the culprit. A technological
revolution first automated away many blue-collar jobs. Now, information and
communication technologies (ICT) have also replaced many white-collar tasks.”
Have you looked
at what Canada Post delivers to your door lately? Most of it is advertising.
Most bills are sent and paid online. Taxes are completed and submitted online.
E-cards, emails, texting, and twittering have replaced letters and cards. UPS,
Purolator and similar companies guarantee next day delivery, which Canada Post
cannot. Letter carriers earn about $50k per year when flyers can be delivered
for minimum wage or acceded online.
Most post offices
have closed. Some towns, cities or townships no longer have house to house
delivery. If you want stamps you have to go to Shoppers Drug Mart. If you do
get a package, it has to be picked up at a Post Office which is located outside
one’s neighborhood or in a Shopper’s Drug Mart. Walmart, Costco and Office
Depot are working on a deal to take over Post office services in the United
States, since it too is shrinking. - So does Canada Post have a future in the
age of technology or will it be an exhibit in a future museum.
